Three little girls strangled to death by Pakistan father because he didn’t want to ‘waste money’ on their education — (Defender of Faith~Guardian of Truth)

Defender of Faith~Guardian of Truth

By IMTIAZ HUSSAIN and FLORA DRURY FOR MAILONLINE

June 9, 2015

These are the faces of the three little girls who were strangled by their own father because he ‘didn’t want to waste money on their education’.

Irshad Ahmed killed his three daughters, twins Chashman and Aman aged seven and a five-year-old Fiza, on Sunday night, after encouraging his wife Shabana Naz to attend a wedding with their only son.

She only took one of her daughters, the youngest aged two, after refusing to leave her behind at their home in Chak Jumra town, around 135 miles northwest of Lahore.

A neighbour told her what had happened later: she returned, Shabana discovered the bodies of the three little girls lying in the bed – and their father gone.

Dead: Five-year-old Fiza was strangled alongside them. Ahmed believed they were a burden, his wife has said.

Speaking today, Shabana revealed how her husband had believed his daughters to be worthless, claiming they would mean the family would ‘die of hunger’.

Worse, he had threatened to kill before.

‘He said, “I do not want to educate them and don’t want to waste money on their upbringing. My only son is my future hope and one day I will vanish these four problems”,’ the 35-year-old told MailOnline.

She added: ‘My husband never gave my daughters a penny of pocket money when they went to school. All their school fees, uniform and expenses for books were paid by my parents.’

Shabana said things had got worse since the birth of her youngest daughter.

‘He always said that we all would die of hunger as we have four daughters and it’s a big expense of their education and then marrying them.’

Distraught: Shabana, right, has called for her husband, who is on the run, to be strangled like her children

Happier times: Ahmed and his wife Shabana Naz, pictured on their wedding day, had four daughters and one son – but he only valued his son, says Shabana, who has now fled back to her parents’ home

Happier times: Ahmed and his wife Shabana Naz, pictured on their wedding day, had four daughters and one son – but he only valued his son, says Shabana, who has now fled back to her parents’ home

Happier times: Ahmed and his wife Shabana Naz, pictured on their wedding day, had four daughters and one son – but he only valued his son, says Shabana, who has now fled back to her parents’ home

Shabana said she had tried to tell people about Ahmed’s threats, but no one had taken her seriously.

She had now fled to her parents’ home, in the Elahiabad area of Faisalabad, where she feels safer.